Mechanically operated violin bow and the like



Dec. 22, 1959 1.. LUCCHESI ,963

.MECHANICALLY OPERATED VIOLIN Bow AND THE LIKE Filed Aug. 12, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 1N VENTOR.

l lacz'alwlacclzesi Dec. 22, 1959 LUCCHES! 2,917,963

MECHANICALLY OPERATED VIOLIN BOW AND THE LIKE Fild Aug. 12, 195'! 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. Luazano Luca/last),

Dec. 22, 1959 L. LUCCHESI 2,917,953

MECHANICALLY OPERATED VIOLIN BOW AND THE LIKE Filed Aug. 12, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR.

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Dc. 22, 1959 L. LUCCHESI 2,917, 63

MECHANICALLY OPERATED VIOLIN BOW AND THE LIKE Filed Aug. 12, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 VIIIIIIII INVENTOR.

Luciano Lucdzea] wow; {Mam Dec. 22, 1959 Filed Aug. 12, 1957 L. LUCCHESI 2,917,963

MECHANICALLY OPERATED VIOLIN BOW AND THE LIKE 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 United States Patent MECHANICALLY OPERATED VIOLIN BOW 1 7 AND THE LIKE Luciano Lucchesi, Braamf ontein, Johannesburg, Union of South Africa Application August 12, 1957, Serial No. 677,681

Claims priority, application Union of South Africa September 21, 1956 4 Claims. (Cl. 84-282) A This invention relates to violin bows inparticular, and more generally, to bows for playing any kind of stringed musical instrument.

7 The object of this invention is to provide a violin bow (and, also, a bow for any other stringed musical instrum'ent to which the invention can be adapted), which can be used for playing such violin or other instrument and which bow is equipped with two sets of hairs, or strands, made of nylon or other similar material, each set having its ends joined or fused together and formed in akind of endless belt, or such bow is equipped with two sets of ribbon-shaped tape, each set having its ends joined or fused together so as to form an endless belt, each'such set being caused to move in opposite directions by means of pulleys and rollers on the bow, which are operated mechanically by means connected to an electric motor, so that the motion of the two sets of hair's as aforesaid, plays the violin or other stringed musical instrument such as a cello or bass, when the bow is applied to the strings. The bow is so constructed that, when it is in operation, as aforesaid, it is capable of playing such violin or other stringed musicalinstrument without requiring the bow as a whole to move, that is to say, without requiring the conventional to and fro movement of the arm holding the bow-the movement of the two sets of hairs, strands or tapes, as aforesaid, on the bow being sufficient. At the present time in any of the conventional bows, it is necessary to move the whole bow across the strings in order to play, say,

the violin. The bow proposed by this invention is held in the right hand in the same manner as an ordinary or conventional bow is usually held. It is possible to use the bow by not using the electric motor (for example, by switching oh? the electric motor, or, by dis- .connecting the bow from the electric motor) in which event; it can be used as an ordinary conventional bow.

The purpose of this mechanical bow is to obtain a sound from a stringed instrument, which sound, is uniform, continuous and of long duration. Furthermore, by means of this-bow, the loudness of the sound can be increased :or decreased, by increasing or decreasing resp'eetively, the speed of the endless belts mounted on the bow as hereindeseribed; which endless belts are formed as aforesaid, and consist" of hairs, or of strands "ofnylon oi ribbon=si1apedtapeand the like. The player holds the bow in his right hand as in the case of a normal violin bow. He regulates the speed of the electric motor by means of a pedal connected to a rheostat. The motor has a flexible shaft connected to it, the other end of the flexible shaft being connected to a set of gears in a gear-case, which gears and gear-case are mounted on the mechanical bow. This gear-case contains gears which operate the two pulleys, causing them to rotate in opposite directions. The two endless belts being settled on the pulleys, one on each pulley, will move in opposite directions to each other. The player will use one belt at a time as is required and can either move the bow or keep it still in playing. A pianissimo can be obtained by giving the endless belts a slow speed or by stopping the motion of the endless belts and using the bow as is normally the case. A fortissimo can be obtained by pressing the pedal of the rheostat down sufficiently to give hte endless belts quick motion or maximum motion. It is convenient to keep the motor and rheostat on the floor or on any other suitable support near the bow when playing.

A violin bow, of the type hereindescribed, is characterised by' having two sets of hairs, or strands, each set having the ends of its strands joined or fused ogether in the form of an endless belt, or having two sets of ribbon-shaped tape, each set having its ends joined or fused together so as to form an endless belt, and each such endless belt being made to move in opposite directions, by means of suitable mechanical means connected to such bow.

The two such endless belts may be made to move by means of an electric motor connected to rollers and pulleys' on such bow by any suitable flexible means. Further means may be provided to control the electric mo tor aforesaid to enable the speed of the movement of such endless belts to be regulated as required according to anyvaria ble speed and also means to enable such motor to be switched otf, so as to enable the bow to be used as an ordinary conventional bow. The hair aforementioned may be ordinary conventional horse-tail hair or nylon threads dr other suitable threads or strands, or as stated above, ribbon-shaped tape may be used instead.

7 One embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the Figures 1 to 8 while a variation of the first embodiment is illustrated in Figures 9 to 14 of the drawings hereto attached.

In the anneXed drawings- Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the various cooperating parts of the invention.

Figure 2 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the wiring diagram.

Figure 3 is an elevational view of the bow.

Figure 4 is a broken view showing the ends of the bow upon a larger scale.

Figure 5 is a broken plan view showing particularly the ends of the bow.

Figure 6 is a view partly in elevation and partly in section showing a portion ofthe mechanism for rotating the pulleys in opposite directions.

Figure 7 is a view partly in elevation and partly in section showing the pulleys and the mechanism for cooperating with the elements shown in Figure -6 in order to rotate the pulleys in opposite directions.

Figure 8 is a cross-sectional view through the pulleys and cooperating mechanism for securing opposite rotation of the pulleys.

Figure 9' shows a modification of the invention illustrating particularly in elevation the pulley construction and the means for rotating the pulleys.

Figure 1 0 is a cross-sectional view of the construction shown in Figure 9.

Figure 11 is a partial elevational view of the construction of the modification shown in Figure 9 at the front end of the bow.

Figure 12 is a side view of the construction shown in Figure 11.

Figure 13 is a perspective view similar to Figure 1 of the modified construction, and

Figure 14 is a diagrammatic view of the wiring diagram for the modification.

In the various figures similar reference characters indicate like parts.

The modification shown in Figures 1 to 8 inclusive will first be described. As shown in such figures the bow generally is indicated at A. As shown in Figure 1, B indicates the bow strings which can be groups of horsehair or nylon threads and these strings or belts which pass over the pulleys C and D located at the end nearest the handle of the bow and the rollers L located at the front of the bow. The pulley C is driven by a flexible drive G from the motor F. The other pulley D is rotated in an opposite direction by the action of a gear mechanism generally indicated at E. Such gear mechanism is shown in detail in Figures 6, 7 and 8.

The two pulley C and D form a casing within which the shaft P is located which is fixed in position by the support K shown at the left in Figure 8 while the other support K at the right allows the shaft M of the pulley C to rotate freely therein. The shaft M is fixed to the pulley C and gear teeth are provided upon the shaft M at its inward side which cooperate with the teeth upon the gears Q which in turn are rotatably mounted upon a shaft fixed at right angles to the fixed shaft P. The flexible shaft G is fixed to the shaft M in order to rotate the same and since the pulley C is fixed to the shaft M the pulley C will rotate with the shaft M. At such time if the shaft M and pulley C are rotated clockwise, then the gear teeth 0 will rotate the upper gear Q shown in Figure 8 anti-clockwise and the lower gear Q clockwise.

The pulley D has fixed to it an interior portion which rotates about the fixed shaft P and this portion is provided with teeth R which cooperate with the teeth upon the gears Q. When the gears Q are rotating as set forth above then the upper gear Q cooperating with the gear teeth R will rotate the pulley D anticlockwise and there by the pulley D is rotated in an opposite direction to the rotation of the pulley C. The gears Q are more particularly shown in Figure 6 and the pulleys C and D serving as a casing for the gears Q are clearly shown in Figure 7.

The motor F has connected to it the wire leads I extending from a container H which encloses a rheostat N whereby the amount of current fed to the motor is controlled by the foot pedal I.

In operation the food pedal I controls the working of the motor F. When the food pedal I is not depressed no current flows to the motor F and in such case the bow may be used as an ordinary bow.

The rotating of the pulleys C and D in opposite directions causes the two endless bow strings to move along the length of the bow in opposite directions and this results in giving a better and improved sound from the instrument played.

In order to obtain the best results it is necessary that only one bow string contact the strings of the instrument at one time. It is also necessary that the endless bow string nearest the player, that is viewed from the player as the bow is held in the hand for playing should move from the roller to the pulley, that is the pulley over which such endless bow string passe-s should rotate anticlockwise and the other pulley, that is the pulley farthest away from the player when the bow is held in playing position should therefore rotate clockwise.

A modification of the above construction is shown in Figures 9 to 14 inclusive.

In this construction, part of the winding mechanism is occupied by the pulley mechanism. In this modification the pulleys W are driven by means of a gear U fixed to the shaft T. The flexible shaft G is attached to the shaft T. The shaft T extends towards the rear of the gear case and is not located at the side as in the first modification.

At the front end of the how the conventional end has been removed and a metal end substituted consisting of a cap or sheath has an arm extending outwardly but the two rollers are attached as shown particularly in Figures 11 and 12.

The gear U acts upon the gears V upon which one is fixed to the upper pulley W as shown in Figure 10 while the other is fixed to the lower pulley W. X indicates a gear case. The other elements in this construction are the same as in the modification previously described.

In this case also, one of the pulleys, namely that nearest the player will turn anticlockwise and the other pulley clockwise.

It is thought that the invention and its advantages will be understood from the foregoing description and it is apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the parts without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacrificing its material advantages, the forms hereinbefore described and illustrated in the drawings being merely preferred embodiments thereof.

Having now particularly described and ascertained my invention and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:

1. A mechanical bow to be used in playing any stringed musical instrument such as a violin, cello, or bass comprising a pair of pulleys mounted at one end of said how, a pair of rollers mounted at the other end of said how, two endless bow strings each passing over one of said pulleys and one of said rollers and means for rotating said pulleys in opposite directions so that said endless bow strings travel in opposite directions.

2. A mechanical bow as set forth in claim 1 wherein said means for rotating said pulleys comprises an electric motor having a flexible shaft connected to one of said pulleys.

3. A mechanical bow as set forth in claim 1 wherein said means for rotating said pulleys comprises an electric motor, a rheostat controlling said motor, a foot pedal controlling said rheostat and a flexible shaft connected to one of said pulleys.

4. A mechanical bow as set forth in claim 1 wherein said means for rotating said pulleys comprises gear teeth upon said pulleys, a fixed shaft and a pair of gears mounted upon said fixed shaft cooperating with said gear teeth.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 678,318 Marshall July 9, 1901 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,967 Great Britain Jan. 23, 1892 

